Gushing Lake Plitvice National Park Adventure—June 4–6, 2021

 Simply gushing!  This is how I experienced this park with its 16 lakes and waterfalls. I started my journey by taking their shuttle bus to the upper lakes and wandered down these hand-crafted wooden walkways and bridges.  

There are over 22 km of these walkways and about 2km are replaced annually.  As I descended, I crossed these tufa formations—travertine—that separated one lake from another.  Water gushes over and through the rock and vegetation formations which makes for an incredible experience.

When I arrived at the forested National Park, there was just a closed shack of a bus station and unlike my map, I had of possible places to stay there were just woods and the three expensive National Park Hotels.  I decided my best plan would be to pay the extra expense of staying at one of these hotels.  After checking two of them which I learned were closed because of drop-in tourists because of COVID 19, I ended up staying two nights at the Hotel Jerzero at a cost of $125 per night—a bit high compared to my usual $20 per night for a dorm bed.  At least it included a Park pass and breakfast.

The recommended route is to start at the top of the upper lake and walk down on the handcrafted walkways—some were over-rushing water.  To get there, they have these elephant train buses (from St 2 to St 3) that take you to the top of Lake Ciginovac.  The elevated walkway skirts the edge of the lake where the frogs serenade you amidst the floating straws of water grasses.

I continued down to Lake Okrugljak where I began to experience the waterfalls and cascades that flowed into one turquoise or emerald lake after another.  Here are some of the images of my experiences during this 9-mile journey along the trail and wooden walkways.

At the end of the upper lake walk, I took an electric ferry boat provided by the National Park the length of Lake Koziak, some 4km to a park concession area.  I then left there to hike up to the Lower Lake bus stop (St1) which returned me to the bus stop (St 2) next to my Hotel Jezero.

After a soak in the whirlpool spa, I had a set dinner of cheese-stuffed bacon and veal smothered in mushroom sauce and gnocchi at the hotel restaurant.

The following morning I took the elephant train back to where I had left off the day before at the St 1 bus stop and began my hike down to the lower lakes which would culminate at the tallest waterfall in Croatia—Velika Slap.

From there I backtracked to the park concession area and caught the ferry boat back to the start of the upper lake trail.  

I retraced my hike of the day before and again enjoyed seeing these amazing lakes, waterfalls, and cascades.  After a hike of about 10 miles, I returned to the St 3 bus stop for a return ride back to my Hotel Jezero at St 2.

Once again the whirlpool spa soothed my tired legs before having a trout dinner.

Although I had considered taking a later bus to Zadar the following day, I awoke to some rain so I decided it would be more comfortable riding the 9:30 AM bus to Zadar in the rain rather than hiking in the rain.

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